Finance

Structure & Teaching

You will study a total of five units which incorporate a range of topics covering decision and risk analysis, investment strategies, pricing models and business valuation. We will also guide you in applying sophisticated forecasting techniques to help you understand and anticipate business trends, and with our guidance you will learn how to design and deliver research to the highest standards. The course then concludes with your dissertation where you’ll engage in research on a topic of your choice.

Here are the units you will study:

• Financial Analysis and Modelling: This unit will enable you to gain a critical awareness of the financial environment from both an accounting and finance perspective. You will learn to understand, analyse and interpret company reports, examine the role of the regulatory framework for corporate reporting and the stock market and explore the pricing of securities. You will also cover the key areas of decision and risk analysis, alongside the process of decision making, key statistical concepts, and selecting and using appropriate analytical software tools as aids to decision making.
• Investment and Portfolio Management: On this unit you will review key theoretical issues such as expected return, volatility, the efficient frontier, the random walk hypotheses, the efficient market hypothesis, capital assets pricing models, arbitrage pricing theory and multi-factor risk models. From this core understanding of modern portfolio theory, you will move on to look at the psychological, institutional and agency theory factors that impact upon financial markets. You will also consider key empirical research on the explanatory and predictive power of models in the context of implementing investment strategies; guided critical analysis of research and analysis of live data will assist you in this.
• Financial Derivatives and Asset Pricing: You will start by reviewing the basic facts and terminology about options and develop some ideas in time series (in non-mathematical terms). You will then go on to develop the main option pricing models and learn how to apply these models in the option pricing theory quantitative methods workshops. In addition you will develop your knowledge of the theory and application of key financial derivatives products with the emphasis on futures, forwards and interest rate swaps. Your main focus will be the application of these products to hedging strategies in investment management and corporate finance.
• Corporate Finance and Valuation: You will consider the primary financial decisions of the firm focusing on advanced capital budgeting techniques and the strategic analysis of capital investment decisions, capital structure theories and financing policy, and dividend policy. You will have the chance to appraise theories in the context of empirical research to facilitate critical understanding of the issues. Advanced study in business valuation will give you a practical understanding and further enable the application of key professional techniques which is particularly relevant for mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings and private equity transactions.
• Research Methods and Dissertation: This is a scheme of independent research. We offer comprehensive training via lectures and workshops throughout the year to develop skills commensurate with standards of good research practice. On completing this programme you will be ideally placed to develop your own research projects and work within professional research teams.

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